Felix77

For me its simple. Experiment and persistence. When I want to learn a bait I study it (starting with this site), ask questions and just downright fish it everywhere. I am stuck on the bank more often so I just make sure to cover as much water as possible with that bait. Vary your retrieve often too. Stay alert and when you catch one make sure you realize what you did and repeat it.

Someone stole mine ... Finding Memo There is also The Little Mermaid. Lol

Haven't caught anything on it but it does cast a mile and runs nice. Hoping to get one more true test this next weekend.

When it comes to bank fishing unfortunately there is no "rule" like that. You get all kinds of people who don't even care about the sport like we do. I generally keep fishing maybe even turn it into an opportunity to share what I am doing if they are friendly. It's not a tournament and the water/land is not yours. Now don't get me wrong ... there is common courtesy and smothering others fishing. That is just downright rude and obnoxious. If they were truly being a-holes then I wouldn't want to be fishing around them anyway and move elsewhere.

Congrats ... Love hearing proud parent stories. Gives me hope for my young kids.

It is

Welcome to the forum! I will be down in your neck of the woods next week for work. PM if you want to meet up to fish.

Nice. Lol

Have you heard his story? http://youtu.be/xYxTINCKXKU

Caught one on a senko before. Had to dig for the picture.

Fishing from the bank you are pretty limited in where you can fish. If I am very limited I bypass the thermometer altogether and just go fish. If I hit a lake with a good amount of water which I can access I test the waters to see which is warmer is spring/fall. They tend to attract more fish. It's not a science for me but IMO during those times I do tend to find fish in the warmer waters. As for the bottom vs. surface temp. IMO I tend to think the surface is much more variable throughout the day and can prove to be deceiving. Meaning it warms/cools much faster than the water below. A more consistent water temp can be found in the water below. When you see a 1 - 2 degree difference below then you know it's a true change over a period in time.

Just had these conditions on Lake Champlain this weekend. 10-15mph steady winds with 20-30 mph gusts. Waves were easily in the 3-5 foot range. Made it impossible to fish. Between the boater and I we caught only one fish. We tried eveything ... spinnerbaits, crankbaits, loud obnoxious topwater lures, flipping and pitching heavy weights. The one caught was on the loud obnoxious topwater. He also had two other blowups but they missed it. Others reported similar success. Learned something that day. Bass will strike topwater in strong waves and wind as long as they can find it. Never thought about topwater in those conditions but it seemed to work on that day.

I just bought a thermometer for fish tanks and tied it to a line. I throw it out, let it sink and in a minute or two I have a reading.

I use braid with fluoro on my dropshot setup. I use a swivel followed by about 2 feet, the hook, and then the length for the weight. That can be from 6" all the way to 2 feet for me generally.

No takers on the Moken series of Kayaks I noticed. Anyone have experience with those?

I am sold on the new line of VMC Ike approved stuff. Much cheaper also.

Was fishing this past weekend and saw my boater using this bait. Never saw it before today. Has anyone else on this forum used them? If so how, when do you use this lure? Seemed to cause a ton of commotion on the water.

Whale placenta .... now that's funny. I thought jellyfish.

Yes. Water in the mid 60's already. Soon it will be ice.

Who here uses them? - I do What kind and size do you use? - Gitzit 2.5 - 3.5 in How do you prefer to rig them? Gitzit tube 1/8 - 3/8oz Do you add scent? Yes Spinning or casting rod? What line? Spinning rod. 8lb FC.

That thing is a beast. Awesome.

Sam I think BassPro calls them the ZEKA or ZIKA rig. I have been using my own all season (from the bank and as a BOBA) and they definitely do work. You are right about the mucky bottom situations ... I switch to a drop shot in those conditions. I am a big finesse worm guy and this is another one of my favorite techniques when needing to keep something finesse on the bottom. Try it with a floating worm and you have a deadly combination. LOL I have seen the BassPro ones and I prefer making them myself. Comes out to less than $1.50 each using quality components.

I have been using these all season with good success. My favorite bait is the 6 inch Roboworm.

10lb PowerPro with an 8lb Seaguar Invizx leader

I use a 7' MF. Works well for me